She's Spent 20 Years Obsessed With People Who Simply Vanished

Why It Matters

The installation demonstrates how interactive, portable art can revitalize historic spaces and attract broader audiences, reshaping museum visitation models.

Key Takeaways

• Lara Favaretto transformed a library into an interactive art installation.
• Over 12,000 books collected; 2,700 displayed at Venice exhibition.
• Visitors hunt personal archive images hidden among the books.
• Pamphlet provides history of the traveling library concept worldwide.
• First show curated by Fondazione Querini Stampalia, marking new partnership.

Summary

The video spotlights Lara Favaretto’s latest project at Venice’s Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, where she has turned a historic reading room into a "library inside a library" exhibition. The work assembles more than 12,000 books, with 2,700 on view, and invites the public to browse, discover, and even take home selected items, blurring the line between archive and artwork.

Favaretto’s concept hinges on interactivity: each volume hides a personal photograph from the artist’s own archive, turning the act of reading into a treasure‑hunt. Visitors describe the experience as surprising—one might expect a culinary theme and instead find an unexpected image, underscoring the unpredictable nature of the collection. A supplemental pamphlet maps the traveling library’s global appearances, reinforcing the piece’s nomadic identity.

The curator, Fondazione Querini Stampalia, frames the installation as the first in a series of pop‑up libraries, emphasizing collaboration between cultural institutions and contemporary artists. Favaretto’s comment, "I like food, so it’s promising," illustrates the playful, personal lens through which she curates the archive, making each discovery feel intimate.

By merging public access with personal narrative, the project redefines museum engagement, encouraging active participation rather than passive observation. It also signals a growing trend of site‑specific, participatory art that can travel and adapt, offering new models for cultural programming and audience development.

Original Description

Lara Favaretto has spent two decades to people who vanished — people who died under mysterious circumstances or simply withdrew from public life. Her “Momentary Monument” series commemorates them without naming them. No labels, no epitaphs. Documents and photographs sealed inside boxes, hidden from view.

This series began at the 2009 Venice Biennale (@BiennaleChannel), where she buried those documents in a swamp at the back of the Giardini. Now, it’s brought full circle, the “Momentary Monument” realized as a library inside the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana. Visitors are invited to engage with the work, pulling books off the shelves to discover the archives from her studio that she has carefully placed into each. Although it’s a method to preserve those archives, it’s just as easily left alone and forgotten.

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The exhibition is presented by Bvlgari (@bvlgariofficial) as part of their new role as Exclusive Partner of the Venice Biennale through 2030.

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Fondazione Bvlgari: Lara Favaretto and Monia Ben Hamouda

May 9–Nov 22, 2026

Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana

Venice 🇮🇹